Rail-joint.



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APPLICATION FILVEDSEPT. 3, 1904.

No MODEL.

l u Nk, AJA/Z4 l r wit n @man UNITED A STATES Patented December 20, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

PETER PETERSON.` oELExINGToN, MASSACHUSETTS.

- vIRAIL-JHNIT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 778,069, dated December 20, 1904. Application ilcd September 3, 1904. Serial N o. 223,235.

.['0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER PETERSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lexington, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Rail-Joints, of which the following is a specification.

V This invention relates to rail-joints, and has' for its object to produce a comparatively simple and inexpensive device of this character, designed especially for connecting the meeting ends of T and girder rails, whereby sagging of the T-rail, witha consequent spreading and weakening yof the'joint, is wholly obvviated.

To these ends the invention comprises novel features of construction and combination of"v parts more fully hereinafter described.

1n the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation showingA the meeting ends ofa Tv of one of the fish-plates.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates a girder-rail, and 2 a T-rail,assembled in endwise relation, forming a rail-joint, the girder-rail 1 being provided at its terminal with an extended portion 3, which lies beneath the base of and underlaps the adjacent end of the T-rail to an appropriate'extent, while upon opposite sides ofthe rails at the point of meeting there l are disposed fish-plates 4L, attached to the ends of the rails andA to each other bythroughbolts.

In accordance with the present invention the fish-plates are leach formed from a single metal blank slotted at its transverse center to thus produce a longitudinal opening or seat 6 of a length equaling about onehalf the entire length of the fish-plate, and the upper portion or section 7 thus formed is oifsetlaterally,'as illustrated in Fig. 8, and adapted when the parts are assembled Vto lie iiush upon the side face of the web 8 of the T-rail 2, while the remaining portions 9 and 10 of the fish-plate tions being oset laterally.

will lie uponthe side faces of Lthe girder-rail web 11 and the extended portion 3 of the latter, respectively.

Itwill be observed onv reference'to Fig. 2

that when the rail-sections are brought into y 10 of the fish-plates will, as before stated, lie

upon oppositesides of the extended portion 3 and act in conj unction with the latter as a firm base lor foundation for the overlying portion of the T-rail.

It may be mentioned that it frequently becomes necessary, particularly inI laying electric-railway rails, to assemble sections of girder and T rails 1n endwise continuance of each other and that heretofore 1t has been .practically impossible to so connect or couple the meeting ends of such rails as to produce a firm strong joint wherein the end of the T- rail would be prevented from sagging.

From the foregoing it is apparent that vI have produced a strong and durable device whereby the rails may be securely coupled and the objectionable features heretofore attendant upon such joints are overcome, it beingV understood that inattaining these ends minor changes in the details herein set forth may be` resorted to 4without departing from the spirit of the invention. y

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is- 1. A {ish-plate incised longitudinally to pro- I duce upper and lower sections, -one of said sec- 2. A fish-plate incised longitudinally throughout substantially one-half its length to produce upper and lower sections, one of said sections being offset-laterally relative to the other.

3. A fish plate incised longitudinally vthroughout a portion of its length to produce upper and lower sections, the normally upper tended portion and the web of the overlying` IO rail.

In testimony whereof I allix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

PETER PETE RSON.

Witnesses:

DAVID O. HALLs'rnoil, Z. B. CAMPBELL. 

